This is I on the Ball with Steve Rivera on Fox Sports fourteen fifth Day, powered by Nova Insurance Services. In sure your most prized possessions.
But good afternoon, everybody.
Welcome to I on the Ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Rivera. In with me today is mister Blake Eager from the Southern Arizona Sports Tourism and Film Authority. Are those gonna beat? Those look like they were going to defeat you right there?
I mean I always put them on backwards, but I was looking for a countdown, but it didn't even give me, like a quiet countdown. I need a five, a four, and then send it off.
Man, it's Tuesday. We don't we don't need no steaking countdown. Are you a rookie year or what?
No?
I gotta figure you should be a KG veteran by now. Yeah.
I'm outside just you know, complaining about everything anyway. So we're good, are you well? You're up against it man working for the WBC.
Yeah, we're good. They're in most of them or some of them are in town. Some of the players of the teams.
Germany's in town right now, and then some of the front office from Major League Baseball and World Baseball Classic. I just left there.
Nice, nice, and thank you for the weather. Yeah for now. Do you see what's Monday and Tuesday. It's supposed to be cold, so like seventy two. Yeah, we'll be fine, we'll be fine. Yeah to audio, I gotta say that the field looks absolutely amazing, like we've had a big league club here for the last ten years.
It is so nicely, So tell me. They're gonna play at TEP right, is that what.
They call it?
Ke veterans stage veterans, so veterans. Then they're going to use the other parks to practice or get ready or what. Now they've got an all day workout on Saturday. All the teams have a workout Saturday, and then games start Sunday, so they don't really don't turnaround, Yeah, because most of the players are coming in from spring training and so they're they're already going at it. Germany came early to do some scrimmages. So who did Germany? Yeah, So they've
been playing some of our local teams. Agarsota put together a two on all star team.
That was nice. Yeah, they've they've done really really.
Good, Like, tell me like, what do you mean they took you guys that were either just out of pro ball or just out of college and put them together on a roster and played Germany twice and in Irish this other Irish Wolfhounds, which is a traveling independent team.
Oh nice, nice, Okay, cool, No, you guys, you get this thing going.
Yeah, I mean for the most so far, so good. It sounds like it right now, but just ask me in twenty minutes.
Twenty minutes when you get a call and says, help me here, get Edgar on the phone, let him do it.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, no, good for you guys and your team minus five days, I think, yes, Sunday Sunday.
Yeah, I got to figure out the schedule.
Eleven am and six pm Sunday Monday Tuesday, by the gap, by the big gap between games.
Yeah, you've got to turn the field over. Okay.
Yeah, So I mean you every ticket is for one game and all the games, or you can buy a group ticket are all the games like MLB tims and all that stuff, so you'll have pitch clocks and everything, just like Major League Baseball. What they I don't believe and don't quote me on this, probably shouldn't bring it up. I don't think they're they're using the robots right now. Okay, what do you think about that? You know, I had this conversation earlier. From a pure standpoint, I don't love it.
I think from a hitterer standpoint right now, with how hard pitchers are throwing, I think it helps them a little bit more helps the pictures helps the hitters hitters, right, So you you you actually know your zone and you can stay in that zone, like you know, like Tito when I've talked to Tito in the past, quite a bitter chip hill. Like they used to plan, pre plan, game plan around the umpires, so whoevers they're behind, whoever
is behind the dish that day on plate. They would they would plan how to attack hitters from a pitching standpoint, knowing that you might get six inches off the plate one way or another.
Wow, that makes sense. Yeah, with all the analytics and the it's crazy.
We're all human. We're all human.
We have tendencies, right, Yeah, spin rate, you know X of velocity, do that with you. I was still little, I was still a little antiquated at that point. Yeah, No, because you're you're twenty how many years out of the game. Ten twelve, O nine was the last year for me, so sixteen. Yeah, we don't need to say the actual number on their Yeah, okay, well like to carry the five.
If you asked me to do math, then I'm just going to say a couple of years ago. No math.
Okay, that's fine. Hey, welcome to the show. We got my guy here, Kobe handling the machine. Here, I'm here, Bike's here. Who's what's your name? So we're gonna have Troy Hanson, Troy Hanson, Troy Hutchinson here at three seventeen talking more about what's tomorrow's game gonna look like, what Saturday's game looked like. What Tommy said today, very stepfast. I still believe it was a bad call, he says,
I'm gonna hold to it. He was disappointed in the fans student section, per se, and that's where it came from. And apologies came from Desiree as we said yesterday, And I didn't know this at the time, the Zona Zoo apologized to so good for them, Damn them for starting this mess. And you can't put the toothpaste back in the tube because it's it's already been said, yeah, but I think the first step is acknowledgement.
Right.
Sure, that's a big thing you're asking for young men, young women, young people in general. You know, one thing that we've always talked about was just trying to own up to your mistakes. And once you can say that I made a mistake, things become a lot easier.
Yeah. And there's a group a lot of mistakes.
I know.
Well, Kobe, you didn't go to the game, right, but you surprised that happened? An't surprised a little bit because the Zona Zoos section. They Yeah, there's a lot of bad chance a lot of young kids, so define like that can happen, right, Yeah, well you said yesterday he was not surprised at all. It's happened before, maybe not to that tone.
Are you surprised? Uh no, No, I'm disappointed. Again. Who am I to say? Right?
Who am I to say? But but they they have to know actions have consequences. Yeah, and whether here's my thing. Pretty smart kids, pretty smart kids, they should no better. One and two you have bigger concerns. You're gonna get out in a couple of months. You need to find a job. Don't be stupid.
Yeah, but if you're asking, I mean, Kobe can answer this better than Night can. But if you're asking twenty if twenty year old Blake would have been in the middle of that, I'm gonna say would have been, and would be. I would have been disappointed with myself at this page, and I'm still disappointed for the actions I made at that age. But you have to make those actions to learn from them. Yeah, but no, yeah, no, you don't have to. Okay, it's an eight pm game
on a Saturday night. Do you think those kids were coming straight from their dorm rooms.
I don't care how many drinks you've had. Don't be stupid, like, Okay, I agree, they win the game. Guess what that doesn't happen? Yeah, yeah, you're probably right.
Yeah.
And whether the b YU team or ASHU are you EIG guys had to fight little tet ted there. Really, it's not that big idea. You lost a name, move on from it. I'm not involved, of course, I'm not hated either way. You a fan, you're a fan of sports? Yeah, okay, I'm not.
I'm not. I know we've talked so great.
Good.
You're a good fan. Do you get crazy when your team loses, I get really depressed. Depressed, so what you you like?
Shut down?
You go see the therapist on Monday. If I have a therapist, it would be great. Yeah, I'll take it. If anybody's list there right now, that is a good therapist.
Let me know.
By the way, if you want to sponsor this show.
Yeah yeah, listen, two for one you get me and you get a sponsorship on Steve show.
You can't get a better thing than that, right you want saying it's how crazy would you have gotten? You throw the stuff at the TV or you you rag, you tweet, you call it a show.
Yeah, I mean we were you know, I can imagine at those stages like the I remember losing in the Elite eight to Yukon and we were at O'Malley's watching the game. I mean we were, we were upset about it, but when you were twenty six years old, this y Yeah, but we weren't. We didn't go out and do anything crazy. No. No, it's a wild response though, when you choose violence, whether
it's a win or loss. Yeah, yeah, I mean the fact that they have to grease light poles so people don't climb on them is still like it's crazy to me, Like I would never want to climb on a lighthole, yeah, especially greased, Yeah, maybe more so greecous.
That's all people get and it's not because they're happy or sad.
It's because they just want to be stupid. So I mean the question is I mean, I guess it's more of a statement. I mean, you're trying to look at sports as an who's any viewership?
Right?
As a fan?
Yeah, and I take I take complete responsibility and ownership of this. Uh, you're looking at as an outlet of your personal life, right, So I don't get like on the show we talked about it, I don't have to concentrate on what's going on in my immediate life for the next two hours. And I'm grateful for it, Steve, and I'll never be able to thank you enough, especially with what's going on. Like I'm very happy, and I'm very I'm very short, but it is it allows me
to come on as a sports fan. It's the same thing, right, You're you put so much stake into these teams because it gives you an outlet. And so when something like that happens, especially that U of a game where that last call to my Still, I don't know how you make that last call, right, I don't know how you make it as as a referee, Like there's a I think there's a breaking point. Now that game doesn't cost us a season. It probably doesn't cost us. Yeah, I
seed too much. But it is like you build up to that week, so you don't know what's happening in people's lives. And that's and that's to the extent that they're taking it out right and going a little overboard, going overboard and you mix in alcohol and whatever else. I mean, things are gonna happen.
Yeah, even when they didn't sell alcohol there, they were kind of you know, yeah, kind of crazy. It is what it's okay, we're gonna move on. So as Tommy said, that's what the team has done. They're moving on and said, you know, the only things I don't dis disregard or regret is the comments that the students did. Uh. They
moved on. They had good practice yesterday and probably today getting ready for Utah to come in circumstances are that Utah coaches is no longer the coach, right, you got to let go yesterday, So they're gonna have a different beast to deal with here. Should be winnable, obviously.
Yeah, I think I think it's a real possibility going to the stretch that you're three and one in the last four games.
That's right.
I don't want to get I don't want to get a headway in the last four games. So the two and three yeah, yeah, See you've got Utah A s U and then Iowa State and you've got Kansas.
Who are they beating? Who they beating?
I think you're beating Utah A s U. And I think you're beating Kansas. Am I crazy in Kansas out?
Yeah?
But that's a whole that's okay. I won't I won't fight with you. I think they're one of the I mean and vulnerable. They're vulnerable. That's a much better way of saying they're overrated.
Yeah, they're vulnerable. They're at home.
They're also gonna have to play out of their mind to get a halfway decent seedy. Then a week later or a few days later, I guess what's the big twelve tournament?
You're so you're really you're we're fighting on for dear life to be in that top four, right.
And then so is Kansas, you know, to just get a good seed. I mean, this is not the Kansas we know. No, it is just the Arizona you know. No, but it's I mean we've had this conversation. It's a different Arizona that I'm it's in a weird way. I'm I'm happier with really, yeah, I mean, in what sense our expectations do you have to know?
Uh?
Yeah, we'll see if he accept it, right, I gotta I If you don't, I've got a diner's card that you'll find over.
No.
I in the sense that, look, our expectations the last three years were so high and rightfully so right, Yeah, you're kind out of the Pac twelve. I just haven't seen a team like this that just doesn't. They constantly get punched in the face and they punch back. There's there's grit in this team. Plus you see, Uh, there's there's grit in this team. They understand. I think they
understand the task at hand. Now, they still to your point and many varied points that you've made, I still think they played down to teams attimes, and you play different styles depending on the team. I just I like this team more going into March than I have.
And primarily because And the funny thing is, before Saturday, I was already had a couple of questions to Tommy says, uh, would you believe or would you think that this is the best defensive team he's had there he would have said probably, yes, they've been very good with it, blah blah blah. And I said, aren't they the most physical team you've had?
Also?
Yes, and the defend well on the perimeter. All those three went to the crapper that night that Saturday. It happens, and and and exactly it happens. And I've always said one of my philosophies, I should put it on the hat, it's how you play that day. Yeah, it's how you play that day and against who you play.
If you would have told me we would have scored nineties ninety six points, I'm like we would have controlled, just like we did at their home right right.
You just caught b Yu.
I mean in a fault is on defense and some too many turnovers, easy turnovers. But for us to match them, I mean, b Yu, they're good. B Yu can shoot. They're a good, flat out shoot. Now that's going to be a troublesome thing when they get in March, because if they go cold, they're probably not true win.
But that's Arizona. The Zonaly gets hot, they get really hot. They don't guess what happens. But we've shown we can win games. If we play in the fifties, we can win a game. If we're playing the nineties, we can win a game. And that's what I think I mean by this team's a little bit built differently, and they are and they are. How many times as a former player and a coach, you go into to a game and you're the favorite and you lose half everyone was this?
I mean, there's this team people don't understand. I think in sports, just general public debt, the other team is pretty good.
Yeah, oh they're not right. That doesn't mean anything. It doesn't mean anything.
You've got against pictures that were lesser than you, better than you, and outcomes probably totally not expected.
Yeah, I mean, I always said the mindset the guy I was going against that day was never going to be better than me. But in retrospect, most of those guys had. Some of those guys had fifteen year careers right and got them and you had and you had to figure out a way. Yeah, I mean I knew I could do I could do different things with the ball by just scripting it. I mean, yeah, so you're you're absolutely right. You look across and you look at
the lesser let's call it the lesser athlete. That lesser athlete can win, especially when they understand how they know how to play their game to the best ability.
Exactly, how would you explain the first round losses at this program that I cover. Yeah, you're playing down to an opponent. I mean you've said it over and over again, and you look back on it. It's enough fault of anybody but themselves for themselves. You're exactly right, and the other team that wants to keep the crap out of you, and.
That there's some motivation there, right, I've I've used that kind of motivation on the national without questioning. Yeah, I probably I probably caused some by country problems for some other countries.
No, but there's no better there's no better.
Explanation or instruction that that those guys are good too. They want to beat the crap out of you. I don't care who you think you are. You're not who you think you're not as good as you think you are and not as bad either.
But you're not as good as you think you are.
And you also, as a coach, have to identify with that engine and what's going to make that team move and go and and sometimes it's a chip on the shoulder. Maybe it's a recognition that you know, I don't want to say it, to play dirty, but you have to play.
You have to play aggressive and physical. Yeah, we're already over. We gotta go. Were you flashing me? Say let's go, let's go. Okay, so we're gonna go. Uh, We're gonna go. Talk to mister I just send here. On the other side, Are you ready? Ready to discover your soul.
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This is I on the Ball on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Want to take part in the show? Call up Steve now at five to two oh four one six, seventy four to forty.
Hey, welcome back to myn on the ball here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. I'm Steve Bavera. In with me today is Blake Eager. We got Kobe at the controls now. We have Troy Hut you send from goisycats dot com. Troy, how are you good?
Good?
How are you guys doing today?
We're doing fine. Thank you.
I know you didn't go to Press COVERERCE today. What did you take away from Tommy's Press COVERERCE today?
Yeah, you know, talking about in terms of having a team that's hungry.
I mean he talked about it during the.
Post game when he went into what did he use that word casual? Just being more up and ready and wanting to see a focused team on Monday.
I think he got that out of them.
Of course, the Goats is always going to say that. But you know, as you look down the final stretch here, it's going to be a big four last games for Arizona. If you're able to go three and one, you're gonna be one of those top four teams in the Big Twelve. If you go to and two, maybe in everything below that, I think you'll fall out of the top four. So they really got to get ramped up here for the twelve tournament.
I don't think I all counts. I don't know, Blake, if you believe this, I know I believe this. It was gonna be that way going into the second half of the season because they it was pretty easy in the first half. They didn't have all the quality teams in the back end, and we knew it was gonna at least I did, that was gonna be this tough because you hadn't really played that many people.
They played the good people.
Yeah, you know, you got the kind of lighter half of the Big Twelve schedule Cincinnati didn't live up to its expectations. West Virginia has been up and down, but you know, you have a nice win over Iowa State, very competitive against Houston. They're sitting in a nice place. I think overall when you look at the start of the season, from that four and five start, I think they're in a better spot and maybe a spot that most fans and most people didn't.
Expect them to be in after going for and find to begin the year.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I mean we were talking about you said it multiple times that first half of the season was a bit lighter, right, and you're going into let's say it was a training going to heavyweight battle, and that's what you're getting almost every game, game in, game out, even with a sure they're gonna play you as hard as they possibly can because the su there's no easy there's really no easy team on the schedule at this point, and you're you're gonna have to go punch.
Did you watch last night's game, well, Houston and Texas Tech. I didn't, and I'm watching it. I'm thinking this is how it is every every week, everywhere. It's just a brutal survival type of game and a heavy if not a heavyweight fight, it's a welterweight fight, it's something fight.
Yeah.
I mean what separates the third the third seed in the Big twelve compared to the ten seed, is you know, an inch? It's it's a sliver.
Yeah.
I mean, every every weekend you're going to have an opponent that is going to push you to.
Your brink in the Big twelve.
And you know Arizona yesterday, have you talk coming up? It's going to be a highly competitive game. But then all of a sudden, you're on the road at Iowa State, a team that's gonna be hungry to beat you, especially after how the game went in Tucson. So it feels like every night is an NCAA tournament level game twelve.
So like to your point, and I think one of the reasons you feel good about this team better than most, if not the same, that they're capable of beating the Iowa States, the Houston's, and the tougher teams because they hadn't shown that, but now they're showing it.
I think the question to both of you guys is when the last time you saw a U of a team this battle tested?
Moving into March. That's a good question.
I would say Sean Miller's Stanley Johnson team, maybe even the Aaron team.
Do you think the PAC twelve was was comparable to what you're seeing in the Big twelve rounds? I'm saying from a battle tested No league play where you're going in the game, That's what I'm and I think that's what the stance I'm taking on it.
Maybe you guys can.
Tell me I'm wrong, You're right, You're right, I mean, you're you're seeing You're seeing guys literally come in with different game plans, different approaches, trying to beat you in different ways, and U A's finding a way to pivot, evault and moving it in a positive direction.
I think in terms of that, this is probably the most bally testing.
Team since they're in Gordon.
Yes, the PAC twelve wasn't as tough as the Big twelve, but they played in.
Michigan on the road in a tough game.
Uh, San Diego State in a tough game. I think they played Gonzaga the following year they had they had a couple more non confidence games, but a lot of different styles during that season. But outside of that, the PAC twelve has been. I don't want to say a cake walk, but it's it's definitely not the tough, tough.
Night night in the night out. Yeah you've seen in the Big Twelve.
Yeah, no question, I think Blake even with me. But since January January something like that. Okay, So throughout the whole year and I've had Bruce Anna, I got all these guys on and we've said, Uh, the great thing about the Big Twelve is it's going to prepare you for what's ahead, right because we hadn't seen this. It's gonna get you ready for something that Arizona has never had before, because when it comes to March, they always get beat up physically or something happens, right, they don't
they hadn't seen before. So here they have it. Well, no, this really works. But here comes the catch. The catch twenty two is that how beat up will they be come three weeks from now when they've played Iowa State or Utah issue, Iowa State and Kansas The Big Twelve tournament. Now the tournament tournament when it really matters. You're talking
a juggernaut of five, six to seven games. If you go to the finals and you turn around, you gotta pay again, how physically tough are you gonna be or have left in the tank?
Yeah, and I think that's where a roster when we were talking about it off there, right. I mean, you're looking at a guy like Townsend and I'm not trying to knock a guy. I just don't know if he's a full fit for this offensive or defensive scheme and how he plays. But you really would hope and wish that you had nine guys that could take up minutes so you can get some of those breaks where you're not getting beat up day in day out.
I think another question is how important is the Big Twelve Tournament to a team like Arizona, Iowa State, a Baylor.
Or Houston.
How much can you really move up in seeding from the start of that tournament to the end of that tournament. I think if you look at Arizona, if they finish out the year second in the Big Twelve, they're probably gonna be that three or four seed. Even if they win the Big Twelve tournament, they're not moving into that number two or one seed. They're gonna stick in that three seed range. So how important will the Big Twelve Tournament be for this team?
Really?
Right, Yeah, but what do you tell you guys.
Yeah, you don't know. I mean that's going on.
You can't give up.
But maybe you play this guy a little less minutes to get.
Him some ress.
Maybe this guy plays a little bit more minutes. You can do some things in terms of getting guys ready for the NC Double Tournament that you went into during the regular season.
It's funny and I like having you hear blake for a number of reasons. One of this year, coach and your player people say, well, we don't want to play them because you could get hurt. This is what they've been doing all their lives. Either you get hurt or you don't get hurt. You know what I'm saying. And when you're going to guess what happens get.
You know what, every time I try to not play a guy or put him in a position where he wasn't gonna get hurt, he got hurt. And like badly, we lost guys for a full season because we were the guest. Yeah, your second guest the whole time. So you lose and you lose a little bit of that clubhouse respect. I did this and just to we're speaking to this point, I one of my Sweden junior national teams. We went into it knowing that we were going to move on, no matter what right we had.
We had moved on.
But we were playing France and the semi championship game where it was I think a semi championship game, and uh, we took a different route, like you guys are talking and started different guys and it changed our clubhouse the mentality because we had taken we had taken a mentality of f you, like we were going to go shove it down your throat and we're not going to stop. And I got coaches got in my face because it was European coaches. They didn't know what we were doing.
And I said, hey, if I can beat you by ten in the fifth inning, I'm saving arms, right, So I'm going to beat you by ten by the fifth inning. I'm gonna save my arm. And we took a different approach and the semi championship game and we lost our championship game.
Ye yeah, no, I don't. I don't know.
So let's as sumer second, he does that which I don't think he will do, kind of pull pull pull therings a little.
Uh.
The chemistry on this team. I don't really know. I don't know if you, Troy, does anybody, because we're not with them a lot. We'll find out eventually. But I think it's okay, it's pretty good.
I think it's grown from the start of the year.
I think during that four and five stretch, it wasn't working with the guards.
I didn't think that the cohesion was.
Working out there. The offensive rhythm wasn't working. But as they got familiar with one another, and I know they played basketball together before, but they weren't in the starting lineup together before, so I think not familiar with each other.
He saw that developed. He saw the.
Classic Tommy Lloyd high assist, low turnover games start to pile up, and the offense found its rhythm throughout the season.
Yeah, I'll give you that. I agree with you.
Can I ask you guys a question though, because we I don't know if it was last week, because we before we started talking about m vps on this team, right, and so you look at the b YU b YU game, who, in my opinion, who was the only player for you guys that didn't show up for you guys, Arizona for sorry again, I apologize for being a fan for the University of Arizona. Who who do you think was the only player that didn't truly show up for that game?
Who didn't Townsend? Yah, but he was not very In the conversation of m v P, I think too.
I think so Townsend is winded, but we're not talking about him. I'd say Jaden Bradley, which is my concern, my concern about him being worn down. His numbers have him bet as what they were the last couper.
I would have to go back to.
That around eleven, around eleven twelve, game of fives, one turnover, okay, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, go ahead.
And all first b y U eight points four for nine oh of two from three with three turnovers.
Okay, what assists were five? So five to two okay, not not a broad of the game overall. But he you know, yeah, but I think.
We're I mean, TROYA. I hope you agree.
The eye contest or the the eye test right during that game that was not Bradley like. That was a difference. He wasn't attacking. I thought defensively, he wasn't a stopper at all. And Troy, you're to your point, I think you do wear it down, you might need to find especially when you get in the term, you're gonna have to find some minutes for Martin.
And that's what we were talking about those it's a guntlet of the schedule coming the rest of the way, and then you need.
A two point guard system, a true two point guard system in the Big twelve. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you out.
No, yeah, you know.
I think the problem with that is and I might get a little flake for this, but I don't know if you can give Martinez.
That type of those.
Type of team minutes.
I don't know if he's ready for that.
And I think that's the hesitation with Tommy Lloyd and his staff is yes, he's developing, but is he ready for MCA a Big twelve basketball?
And to me the answer is no.
Guess why, it's not November, it's not December, January, March. When you got to get you guys going.
You saw him when he when Tommy put him against I think the one that stands out for me is UCF Like there they were a really first, real physical team and when Conrad got pushed around a little bit, he was out right. I think maybe b why use a different A little bit different. They're not a truly physical guard play team, but it's very clever.
Again, So so to both of you real quick, because I asked this Jay on Friday. Uh, who is the X factor? I already said mine, So I'll say that to mine after you guys say yours because I already said it. Who's your X factor of Troy for the season for the rest of the way.
Yeah, kJ Lewis Again, I think kJ is the best defensive.
Player in the Big Twelve.
He had a horrible game against the BYU and that wasn't a kJ Lewis game. But when you want to stop somebody, especially an individual opponent on a team, it's kJ Lewis time, and he locks in, creates the steal, gets a lock, gets that energy going. It isn't always pretty, but I think he's by far the best defensive player on the team.
I would say, Brian. I mean, I'm not disagreeing with Roy and that's what Brian. That's a good one because give me the reasons. I think he does so much when he's on the floor, and if he's in a confident mode and mental state, he can take over a game. At times, especially, I've seen it when we have lost our offensive rhythm, we just take it over and take it over. And defensively he's our he's arguably our sex second best, second best rebounder.
Yeah, so let me tell you, and you guys might levet this, but I'm very confident in saying this. This is even before the b Yu game. I think Delorso if he can comes on and he had a very good game against Bayu, he fit right in right because no one's nothing's expected of him. But if he comes up with twelve points and a little of this and a little of that, okay, because you know what you're gonna get from Caleb. You don't know what you're gonna
get from Caleb. You know what you can get from the other guy's either is gonna be good or not. And Delorso if he comes on, if he I hate that, we're if because if I win the lottery, I'm out of here, you know.
If.
But if Dolorso can do some of the things that he's capable of. In fact, you saw the clip on Delriso from Tommy Today, Right, what are you gonna do? Can you make him do this? And he says Oh yeah, I'm gonna tell me three threes. You know, you just need to play better and be more confident with his shot because that's what he's doing.
Yeah, and he can create his own shot at times too. You forget he's six six.
And he and he's got a trigger.
He's got trigger.
I do think another piece too is how long can a walk in and Vistar stay on the floor together? Right, because they they're able to feed each other. They're a little bit like Ballo and Tubella's in the past, not and nearly at that level. But when you have a four and five that are able to find each other and we can score in the post, we score well in the post, it gives you that option.
Gives you an option, right.
The problem is when you have to have one of those guard a guard in a four spot, Yeah, you lose, You lose a little action there.
Well, I think that's the brilliance to guard Brian And kind of going back to that, I think.
Carter and kJ there.
Is something special because.
You could put Kate Carter at that four and all of a sudden, Carter can guard a small four.
You can guard guard out there, and.
You can get smaller and have Henry Vassar or Tobya walking out the five position.
Let me ask you, this is maybe a dumb question, Troy. I know you're there every now and again. I'm there every now and again too, not as often as that, Like you, has your perception of Tommy changed at all in the last oh this season.
I think you've seen a little bit more of a fiery edge than Tommy right than in past seasons.
Maybe that's with the.
Expectations of making it past a sweet sixteen and knowing that the fan base is kind of getting tired of losing and a sweet succeeeds and when.
The expectations previously were.
A lead a final four and kind of getting back to what Arizona basketball has been in in the past, and it hasn't been that way in a while.
But I think it's a little grown frustration from that.
And you're in a conference and I think you've seen there was play more physical, and with more physicality comes.
Hiring us, and I think that that starts from off on everybody.
Yeah, No, I think that I feel the same way. He's become not so much defensive with the responses, but more aggressive with the responses. Yeah, I can understand his mindset there.
Tell me, I mean from a coaching standpoint, you're you feel that pressure from the outside, right from the fan base. No matter what you do, it's not going to be good enough.
Right.
You come in the first three years, you tie the most wins with the fastest one hundred wins with your predecessor or I mean at Gonzaga, mark few. And then you feel this pressure that you're not doing enough, and you're like, I'm winning, I'm winning league championship, I'm bringing you championship five percent. Like yes, I can't what else? Oh you want me to get to the lead, Like that's that easy? And you start feeling this and now you get in choice. Right, you get into an aggressive conference.
You get into aggressive conference, and now not only are you feeling that pressure, but now you're taking on the same personality as a conference.
They didn't make this an analogy real quick for both you. So, so Arizona beats Duke last year, right in the first few games. What happens The expectations for that team gets elevated, probably unrealistically blah blah blah, and they play and they don't do so well. But everybody has that oh, they're capable of doing this. I think a lot of people out there in the real world think, oh, they they're so talented, but they can't put it. Well, that's every team, right,
it's every team, especially with Arizona fans. Yeah, and here we are. They they won eleven and eleven and one, twelve and two whatever it was. Oh, they're back and they're really good. And then they run into this. Oh what the hell's going on? You know, what the hell it's it's crazy, it's it's just crazy.
Yeah, you're losing in the last thirty seconds of the game and your whole experience good team to good team.
Sorry Troy gohey, oh.
No you're good.
No, I've noticed it from Arizona fans the last couple of years is every loss is life or death.
Every loss is man.
This coach can't coach. This coach is terrible.
Tailor love camp.
Shoot, he's not good.
I don't know why they have him on the team. What are what are we doing?
We turn over the ball too much.
It's like the guys, that's one game.
Yeah, it loss to be at the Buzzerah, Like they swore ninety five points. If you would have said they swore ninety five points. You can't be complaining.
About the pompense.
They should have played better defense. Yeah, but lonsins are going to happen. And they start off four and five, and at four and five there's a lot of u of a fans wondering is Tommy Lloyd really the right guy for the job.
Who's going to be the best coach?
With the conversation at that point, Yeah, and now you're at this point.
You know, this is a good point to say, don't get married. You're never going to make everybody happy. You just can't live in peaks and valleys, right, Joan, thanks for joining us. Man one take Blake, did you catch say last statement of mine? Did good?
Where I'm at? Let's take a break, come back kicks and calls.
If you're an Arizona men's basketball fan, you know it's been successful for newly forty years.
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This is I on the Ball with Steve Ravera on Fox Sports fourteen fifty. Subscribe now to the podcast on the iHeartRadio wile just search Ie on.
The Ball and welcome back to the about here on Fox Sports fourteen fifty.
I'm Steve Rivera. Your like that, Yeah, that's what people tell me.
Let me ask you something because you just said something to me that kind of flattered me.
But I'm gonna ask you something more.
You listen when you're not on and before you ever we ever met, you listened to the show all the time.
What do you think of the show? Will be entertaining? Do and know? I too negative?
No, I mean you're I mean there's a reason why somebody with my personality wanted to listen to the show every day. I mean, yeah, it worked out into my time frame because I was always driving the field at the same time. But it was something that kept me back because I think you change up even when you guys are talking about the same subject from a day to day standpoint, like you have a basketball now we're in the season, or you a football during good season.
There's always a different take on the conversation. You're able to mix in, Like we talked about the last week, you know about the best Mexican food restaurant, like and there's no way you asked me point point, There's no way I can name one. But I try to name a couple. But it's just an it's an added take. It's a difference to a fresh I don't want to hear the same mundane over and over again.
Yeah, okay, so at least we're trying to be entertaining and maybe final a little. I know, Jay and I did a little uh with the blue blood stuff.
It's funny.
I was reading I was reading a story on Indiana, and I guess, did you see Decas? I guess he's been on Indiana University for a long time and the blue bloods blah blah blah. And I think they're legitimate blue bloods and they were there forever for a long time, a long time ago, Bobby Night stuff. They haven't been there in a long time there was one hasn't been there a long time, and they talked about the banners being dusty and people still living in the past. Do
you think that's the case here? You're in the house too, I know. And this is hard because I'm gonna have to separate. And I am a fan. I mean, I've been a diehard fan since I was literally since I was like eight years old, right or younger. I think it's different. I've never I haven't.
I didn't live through that era at Indiana basketball and maybe the tail end of it a little bit. And they're still in the same conversation. It's like Nebraska football, yeah, right, Like actually that was that was the compare. Yeah, I was the compare. You've a'sed not in that conversa. You've as better than that. I mean, you've gives us every single year. We've had way more up years than we've had down years. And that's not talking about March madness.
That's talking about seasonal overall. Right, there's been excitement around the program. We've we've pulled in. It's hard to maintain that same approach when you lose a Hall of Fame coach like Ludelsen and you're able to pick up a guy like Sean Miller instead of who are we trying to get Tim Floyd? Right, I mean saying goodness, I mean, no knock on Tim Floyd, but thank goodness we got
Jean Miller. And then now you're moving into Tommy Lloyd, which Tommy Lloyd was a complete unknown outside of from a head coaching standpoint, maybe arguably the greatest assistant coach in the country. But you're looking at what he's doing with this program and it's it's I just I don't know if I would say we're a true blue blood a good program, Oh, very good. We're more purple than we are red when it comes to that.
Well, it's funny because the Houston Reporter talked about and he said blue blood, and Jake gives me that I told you anything.
Just because you say it doesn't mean it's true.
And then he says, Okay, maybe a lighter shade of blue.
Yeah, And I think the national perception is that we're always overrated because we don't live up to what we're supposed to do in March, which that's very refreshing from you.
Yeah, I mean, I mean it's true. And what's your argument, you're right, you're right. What's your argument like, oh yeah, well.
You're like, okay, well sorry, we beat up on Pack twelve teams, right exactly, So when you look at the Big twelve this year, I'm like, I mean to do it in a different way then we've done it. Since I can remember the program, you know, going to see games. It's refreshing to me.
Yeah.
Yeah, if you guys want to call, please do five to two oh four, one, six, seventy four forty if you guys believe what we're saying or not believe. But I think that perspective is spot on. I mean, what's your argument, Well, we've been to the well, you haven't been to the final four a long time, you haven't won a title but one.
Yeah, and it's true. It's a it's a great art.
You can't be a true blue blood I what let me ask you guys this, You of a sports, right and not Olympic sports, because I don't know enough about those, and that's that's unfair, and you guys probably know more than I do. But what you of a sports are true blue blood sports that you go know that that program deserves to be. There's only two. In my mind, there's two in what are they? Softball and swimming? I think you got to throw baseball in there. Okay, I
mean how do you not? Yeah, it's four national championships. Yeah okay, I mean think about the Major League baseballlayers they put out. Okay, you didn't have swimming on that list, did you?
I didn't. But again I can't swim. So you're on the air nine of the ball. Who's this?
Hey, I was thinking about you. I needed you to call right on cue. What are you talking about? What do you want to talk about?
Well, I want to agree with your partner. There at least the Cats, and this is what I was trying to kind of say yesterday. At least they give you something to root for in March where you're not out of it in January, right, And that's a good thing.
Yeah.
So, And you know sometimes, I know you say about the fans and stuff, but you know, coming from LA it's so cool. I've been here three years now, and you know everybody has the A on their car window. You go in a bar and you're talking about you of a softball or tennis or something, and it's it's kind of refreshing. We're being in La. Nobody went to None of my buddies they were all UCLA fans, but they ever went to one single game.
But yeah, I mean, uh, vict I mean to that point, like I didn't go to the uv right, and I'm a Homer. Still I come back and I root for mostly all the uv A sports. My wife went to as U, but still she's a diehard UFA basketball fan.
Yeah.
It's it's it's a community, it's a it's a it's a way of living that we can all come together with. And I think that separates to some for a lot of the other big cities. But that's a great point, Vic.
Yeah, I and I truly believe like I said, and I'm a Dodger fan and everybody, Hey, they didn't win for twenty.
Some years, thirty three and but yet.
You know what, you can root for them at least in October. You're not you're not out of it in thirty eight Ril or whatever.
You're swimming and riches right now.
So I don't want to talk about the Dodgers, you guys, I mean, come on, this is ridiculous.
So, but it wasn't that way for a long time.
Though, let me evict before you go.
Uh, Arizona can know. Uh, let's see what's the worst thing can go this year for how far that you won't be disappointed.
I'm honestly rooting Sweet sixteen. And then if they can't, you know how is Steve? You said it a million times? Then you catch a break, you hit a couple of shots, Caleb gets hot or or or Jayden drives of the hoop, and uh, you know, you get to the Elite eight if you're really really lucky. Yeah, really really lucky. And I want to be on that lucky side. And I mean, look at Sean. Those teams went to the late Elite eight and we missed it by what two points three points?
And so and you you just got to have that. And that's what I was trying to tell you yesterday with Jay's buddies, they you have to play good because with this thing, it's one and done. And those turnovers make you cringe and stuff. And you know, if you have one of those turnover games, you're gone.
Yeah, but that turnover game that happens yesterday or the day before has no correlation to March.
It's how you do that day.
Too, I agree with you because it's I that's one thing I haven't learned from you. It's how you play that day.
Yeah, okay, thanks vic, Hey, VIXI the WBC, the World Baseball Classic.
I'll be there. I'll be there for sure.
Okay, we thank you, man.
Uh So to that point before we move on, like we talked about the last three years in March, there's only one game that I look at out of the three losses that we had that I go, we were we should have won that game. No, no, again, we from my standpoint, they were so well coached. Prince Princeton was so well coached, and they were so well organized when they came into that game. I think Clemson. Clemson's a game that I think. You look at that game
and we beat ourselves so many times. And I mean Bradley had a coming out party too, but I mean I think we beat ourselves so many times. The Houston game, Houston was a better team than they should never have been a five season anyway.
Yeah, yeah, but you gotta beat those teams matter, and Houston's Houston's good, They've been good for a while. I think Arizona's in a little bubble. The fans and what they see, what they read, and what they tellent. The teams so talented, why can't they there's other teams. You're not playing tennis, They're not. This is not just you against me. It's a bunch of guys against a bunch of guys who are pretty damn good.
Yeah, you're looking at the talent at that level is I mean, you're gonna have a couple and every time, but you're looking at any person can beat the person across the court from you.
And we've talked about this and I'm glad you noticed it is if you play down or you play up, and every team wants to beat the crap out of Arizona because what they think they're Arizona.
Yeah, I mean you look at the you're walking into Michale and you're looking around, you're like, okay, like this is a place. Yeah you know like b yu no knock. I mean that was That stadium is incredibly large and it's very loud. But you don't walk into that stadium. You look around and you go, okay, there's some history here and that's the problem.
Yeah, you think, oh oh we got this. Yeah, one hundred guys, that's what they made.
I thought Arizona played one of its better games there when they got that win. I thought both games should have been flopped. Yeah, they lose that game like this over the went at home and you went at home with that game. Yeah, it wasn't Listen, I haven't said he had many chance. It was a miserable call. It was an awful no. No, it was a terrible And the previous one with the cabub love driving, I get horrible.
We gotta we gotta go, all right,